The orange peal is caused by the finish being too thick. Since you thinned it that eliminated further orange peal but it won't get rid of what is there. The orange peal will have to be sanded. You can sand it and spray it as many times as needed to get the orange peal smooth.

 

Thank you Steve, I appreciate your replying. As it happens, I sprayed a final coat this afternoon that was mostly methylated spirits and the orange peel
is very much reduced, almost to the point of being acceptable. After giving the pieces a couple of days to harden, I intend to cut the finish back to
smooth with the finest wire wool and apply a coat of very thin polish. I suspect that will give an acceptable result that I can then treat with beeswax polish.

 

Also a newby, but I've been working with shellac a bit on guitars and watching how to videos on you tube. I understand that (at least on flat surfaces) using a sanding block will provide a smoother finish as it will knock down the high points. Whereas steel wool will polish everything and may leave smooth hills and valleys. And if you want a really glassy surface, I've had great luck using this auto polish on shellac (it's quite rewarding... appears to use simple ingredients, and has a nice cinnamon like smell to it):

Search Results | Meguiar's

www.meguiars.com

 

A proper French polish doesn't require leveling between coats nor does it require a polish to make it shinier/glossier.

 

Here's a video I did in January showing a test inlay piece that I did a French polish on; I can post a video showing someone who really does it right and does a fantastic job if you want.

Go to about 13:30 in my video to see the French polish in a time lapse or watch the entire video if you want. I didn't try to fill the grain nor did I want a higher gloss so I stopped at the point I did on purpose. Same as the guitar I'm playing in the insert; that's a guitar I built last year and it is entirely French polish but I stopped before getting to that super-high gloss.

 

What difalkner said too. I just ordered some linen fabric samples in different thicknesses so I can start practicing french polishing. The shellac work I've done so far used a foam brush for the application and required a good bit of sanding and polishing that I hope to avoid one day after getting down a good french polishing technique.

 

Hi Beebe, Thank you for your responses.
We are and have been on the same page! I, too got some linen samples
but thay had too obvious a weave and so they left marks in the polish. I went
to a charity shop and got an old shirt that was a well washed 100% cotton item.
A rubber made of this worked far better.

Re flatting between coats, I was using ultra fine (2500 grade) wet and dry paper. This
yended to clog easily and though it made the finish 100% flat, it left scratch marks.
Fine wire wool doesn't do this, it justs gives a matt finish, ready to accept more polish.
It's probably important that my clock parts are far smaller that a guitar.

I moved on to spraying the polish because I've been applying car paint for years.
I was getting orange peel because I applied the polish neat and so it was too thick
to flow properly.Thinning the polish with methylated spirits has helped so I can get a finish
from the gun that's no worse than a modern car for peel. I might even stay with this- I have
excellent reflections in the surfaces now.

Polishing afterwards as you suggest may help, I'll see how it goes. By the way, the clock
is a Dutch Zandaam clack that has lots of polished brassware, including a little figurine of
Atlas, carrying the world on his shoulders!

 

This is by far the best video I've seen on French polishing -

 

And Michael Thames' tutorial is a close second (four videos, I believe) -

 

Ha! Yes dav, sounds like we are on the same page! I just ordered some of these Preval spray units to experiment with spraying using my own mixtures... starting with dry flakes and Everclear (basically edible).

Preval Spray Unit - StewMac

Handy alternative when professional spraying equipment is unavailable.

www.stewmac.com

I'm planning to experiment with adding pigment powders to this mix to make my own all natural spray paint. ...Sound like you have a nice piece with that clock!

 

And I have heard of experienced sprayers (which it sounds like you are) getting great results with shellac by just spraying.

It might be worth experimenting on some scraps with that Meguiers Ultimate Compound. I don't recall it being too expensive and I think you might find some other uses for it around the house as well. I was working on a partial refinish of a 20 yr old guitar and only sanded with 600 and then hit it with the Meguiers... It still has some visible scratches in it as expected but they match the old finish and around them it's like a mirror.

Based on your experience, it sounds like I will be adding the fine steel wool to my arsenal as well.

 

And I have heard of experienced sprayers (which it sounds like you are) getting great results with shellac by just spraying.

It might be worth experimenting on some scraps with that Meguiers Ultimate Compound. I don't recall it being too expensive and I think you might find some other uses for it around the house as well. I was working on a partial refinish of a 20 yr old guitar and only sanded with 600 and then hit it with the Meguiers... It still has some visible scratches in it as expected but they match the old finish and around them it's like a mirror.

Based on your experience, it sounds like I will be adding the fine steel wool to my arsenal as well.

Thanks, Beebe,

Here's how it looks now...

The refelection at the top is how I want it to be when finished - lower down, you can see the slight orange peel.
The box on the left is the case for the clockwork movement that fits on the back plate. The bolt near the arrow
in holding a cardboard mask - the clock fingers centre on where the bolt head is now.

And here's how it was before I stripped it down...

This is around 40 years old and I'm doing the clockwork up too, with a
little help! Dutch clock, German movement and parts are still available.
It has a lovely, light bell sound on the hour and half hour. Who knows, it
may even keep time!

 

Really cool!

 

Here is what mine is looking like. There is some cloudyness below the surface which makes me think I wet sanded too soon. Next time I might try sanding with oil instead of water. It was still a little gummy after sitting overnight, so I'm thinking that the can of shellac I got off the shelf may have been old. Next time I'll mix it myself. I've been out of town for 4 days and I'm hoping it's hardened some. I filled in large gouges and small dents with filler and glue, left the original poly finish, then shellac, then spray paint, then shellac. So the finish should be reversible. I had to sand and coat several times as I almost sanded through several times trying to level out most of the dents and peaks. Only sanded to 600 and then hit it with the rubbing compound. Next time I'll spray fresh shellac instead of foam brush the hardware store stuff, and do thinner coats waiting the full 20 min between coats and hopefully get better results.... Or french polish.

 

Well, that's getting there nicely isn't it? You have a good refelection on the face where the machine heads go and especially on
the back of the neck. I can see some fogging though, in the flat surface. To me that suggests some contamination. I used a little
drying oil (boiled linseed) on my job but as soon as I laid on a sprayed coat, it came to the surface so I had to reflat to get rid of it.
I got some home made French polish via eBay but that was poor stuff so I used a known brand instead - Rustins Button Polish.
This is the same a FP but a little darker and better able to gloss.

From my car work experience, I suggest 600 grade wet & dry paper is a bit coarse. On car paint (much harder) I'd use that to key the original
finish so the primer will stick. I'd then use 1500 grade. On FP, 2500 or finer gives a nice finish but clogs easily. This is why I used wire wool.
The polish coats, thinned with methylated spirits or denatured alcohol, 'melt' the existing coat slightly so there's no need for a key.

Even though the materials are much softer, the priciple is much same as painting a car. The old saying is this, 'If you fail to prepare,
prepare to fail.' This is very appropriate because you don't have a primer coat to hide a multitude of sins! As with chromium plating, if the
substrate is correct, the final result will be too.

Just like many other things, it's clearly all about time, attention to detail and patience. Keep up the good work!

David